The present subject matter relates generally to an improved keyboard guitar or keytar. More specifically, the present invention relates to a keyboard guitar having a limited number of keys and an extended neck including functional transpose buttons.
Keyboard guitars provide a greater range of movement compared to a traditional keyboard. Rather than being confined to standing or sitting behind a stationary instrument, a keyboard guitar player is free to roam the stage. However, keyboard guitars still suffer from many drawbacks, which slow their adoption as a popular musical instrument.
Many keyboard guitars resemble keyboards more than guitars. Indeed, many keyboard guitars are little more than portable keyboards with short necks. This leads to a style of play that is more keyboard-like than guitar-like, both physically and musically. Further, while guitars have a pleasing aesthetic that is very popular amongst musicians, keyboard guitars often have a very unpleasing aesthetic that hurts their desirability as instruments regardless of a keyboard guitar's musical expressivity. Additionally, keyboard guitars have had limited functionality to enable the player to utilize popular musical techniques to enhance their musical expressivity when compared to the guitar, such as, for example, note bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, tremolo, etc.
Accordingly, there is a need for a keyboard guitar that enables the user to experience a more guitar-like style of play that preserves the aesthetic of a guitar and provides the player the ability to use techniques that have the expressivity of a guitar, as described herein.